The landed estate of the noble Fieschi family was an ancient coastal town situated on the alluvial plain lying on the left bank of the River Entella, between the sandy beach and the olive-covered hillside.
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Together with Chiavari, which absorbed the county of Lavagna in the fourteenth century, the inhabited area now forms a single conurbation. Although the marine industry, agriculture and slate working have always been the main activities on the banks of the Entella, they have taken second place to tourism over the past century.
The mediaeval nucleus developed in a rather unusual way, as an extension of the route that passes through porticoed Via Nuova Italia (1835) and leads to the hinterland. The road to San Salvatore begins at the mediaeval gateway of Piazza Santa Caterina Fieschi Adorno, which encloses the town to the north.
A Crucifixion scene by Domenico Fiasella hangs in the tenth-century parish church of Santo Stefano, which was carefully reconstructed in 1653, with the addition of a Baroque stairway and asymmetrical bell-towers that rise over the stone sacristy.
Some of the religious and civic monuments in the old town center are quite imposing, such as the late seventeenth-century Palazzo Franzone, now the town hall, while others are embellished with features of historical and architectural value, such as the fifteenth-century slate portal of the Oratory of the Holy Trinity.
A panoramic road leads from Viale Mazzini to the church of Santa Giulia di Centaura (1654), which offers a view over the gulf from Sestri Levante to Portofino.
On 14 August, Lavagna relives its ancient splendor, when original dancing and music and mock-battles are used to bring back to life the court of the noble Lavagna family: this is the traditional festival of the "Fieschi Cake". Legend has it that in 1230 an enormous cake was given to the local inhabitants to celebrate the marriage of Opizzo Fieschi to a Siennese noblewoman. Seven centuries later the gigantic cake, whose recipe is still jealously guarded by the confectioners of Lavagna, is offered to ticket-holders who find another person in the crowd with a twin ticket.
